Vac/Boost digital gauge in biz card holder hole

[vince954]

Hey guys, I installed a cyberdine boost/vac gauge in the location for the business card holder.

I did not want to give up an air vent just to get a mechanical boost gauge so I decided to make something fit. I bought the standard cyberdine boost/vac gauge because it has the right size red LED display and a dimmer input. Here is how it looks:



http://www.audizine.com/gallery/show...=36883&cat=500


I took the guts out of the cyberdine gauge package, used ribbon cables to connect pin to pin the LED and boos/vac indicator that I unsoldered from the board. I then mounted the LEDs on a flat black piece of plastic and created a cover out of red lense material I found in an auto parts store, to hold everything together and to the bezel I used hot glue.


The end result looks pretty good, runs great too. The sensor was mounted in the engine compartment; I had a bit of a time tapping into vacuum because I have the Evolution Motorsports intake kit which leaves little room to put in a tap. I am still looking for a good source for the dim imput, as I discovered that If I use the one at the dimmer switch it makes the display flicker when dimmed… I guess it has to be a solid 12v, not less..

[wofman]

Great job! Any reason this can't be done on other AUDI models?

[t3han0maly]

how much to have you make one of these for me? i'm very serious btw.

[wofman]

Sounds like a potential biz opportunity -- applicable to all Audi turbos? Bi-turbos?

[vince954]

I guess there is no reason, I saw in another site that someone made one from scratch, same idea but from component level. I did not want to re-invent the wheel so I went with the cyberdine gauge. works great.

[vince954]

I had never thought of doing this for anyone else, simply because its not a plug and play thing. I had to hot glue the assembly to the back of the bezel that goes around the switches and biz card holder. I also had to run wires in the vehicle for power and dimmer (which I still have to sort out). in short, give me some time to see if this can be made a simple thing to put together in a kit...

[t3han0maly]

good point. i hope you can cook this up. it looks neat esp considering the color and the LCD display. it will be more OEM'ish than the vent gauge kits.

[VMRSport]

Pretty cool thing you did there.

-Don

[dmeteny]

yo, were you able to sort out that dimmer problem?

I'm thinking about doing this to my '08.

[vince954]

yo, were you able to sort out that dimmer problem?

I'm thinking about doing this to my '08.

Unfortunately no, the cyberdine gauge seems to have an issue with dimming where it flickers at 4 second intervals while dimmed, its really distracting. what i ended up doing is using more dark red plastic material to dim it and disabling the dim imput. aside from this issue I have had no other problems.

[sc_flaw]

You should make these to sell them =) only thing i would suggest is to make it flush with the panel and offer it in that new black background with blueish white lettering would make it even better! Good Luck! i would definately get one if it was like that!

[wofman]

what i ended up doing is using more dark red plastic material to dim it and disabling the dim imput.

Can you post "as built" pix?

[vince954]

Can you post "as built" pix?

sure, here are some pics of the process and final...

this is the cyberdine gauge, took it appart and unsoldered the LED's, then used ribbon cable to connect remotely pin to pin...


I then took a think piece of black plastic and cut holes in it for the LEDs, used red lense material to cover the front and mounted it in the business card holder hole.



and this is the result, I dimmed it a bit more than in this picuture by using more red lense material, it was too bright at night and dimming in these units is an issue as it makes them flicker... the gauge is steady when in vacumm and flashes for boost.



the sensor is mounted in the engine compartment, they do not supply a tap but as I have the Forge diverter valve I just used the port they supply, works great.

[wofman]

So ... you ready to go to market with a kit?

[vince954]

sure, here are some pics of the process and final...

this is the cyberdine gauge, took it appart and unsoldered the LED's, then used ribbon cable to connect remotely pin to pin...


I then took a think piece of black plastic and cut holes in it for the LEDs, used red lense material to cover the front and mounted it in the business card holder hole.



and this is the result, I dimmed it a bit more than in this picuture by using more red lense material, it was too bright at night and dimming in these units is an issue as it makes them flicker... the gauge is steady when in vacumm and flashes for boost.



the sensor is mounted in the engine compartment, they do not supply a tap but as I have the Forge diverter valve I just used the port they supply, works great.

I have had some requests to build one, if interested please let me know so I can compile a group to get a better deal. as for the cost, the cyberdyne gauge alone is $130, add to this the vacumm tap, lines, wiring a good amount of labor and I would say something like $250 is a cheap quote. I have only done this for the A3 2.0t, I would think it could be done for other vehicles with some adaptation for mounting...

[t3han0maly]

man I would love to have this. It looks os OEM and sick. Have you thought about using a matte finished black piece of glass/plastic instead of the red? I think it would flow better with the rest of the "screens" around the car.

[vince954]

man I would love to have this. It looks os OEM and sick. Have you thought about using a matte finished black piece of glass/plastic instead of the red? I think it would flow better with the rest of the "screens" around the car.

not a bad idea, the only concern would be creating glare in front of the LEDs I used a layer of red lense tape dim the LEDs and on top two layers of thin plastic lense material. I am still looking for other options to see if I find something that looks nicer, I agree that something with a matte finish would look good too...

[gregoriousd]

Finally. I've been trying to hunt this thread down cuz all I ever saw was the pic of your gauge. Nice work! I'd love to do this in my B6. What was the other site you were talking about where it was done from scratch? And is the flashing when dimmed you're talking about only on boost or the whole time?

[vince954]

Glad to hear you like it, there are pictures of the whole thing in my profile. at the end I disabled the dimmning feature, the cyberdine gauge seems to have an issue with dimming in that it flickers when dimmed a bit. I simply put another layer of red lense material in front of the LEDs to dim them a bit and it worked out fine.

[gregoriousd]

The only problem I see now is that the newest version of the Cyberdyne gauge shows the words vac/bst under the #s rather than to the side. You did this a year ago so they must have changed it up a bit (or are they separate LED's?). I will not be discouraged- very cool mod!

[vince954]

oh, I had not seen that one yet. If you do searches online and in ebay you can still find the older version. I really wish it has separate LEDs for vac versus boost but it has both on at the same time, boos is indicated by a flashing display which can be a bit scary for passengers that do not know what it is... My local audi dealer mechanic got a kick out of the display this monday when I went in for the 35k service.

[vince954]

UPDATE:

aftter working for a long time, the cyberdine electronics failed. not sure why. called them only to find out that particular model was discontinued. I searched and searched and found that a company called Glowshift makes a similar gauge to what I had, red digitial LED display. I bought one and did a similar mount to before. I did have to move the sensor inside as theirs is not waterproof but that was not a big deal. the great thing is that it has a working dim imput that allows it to dim with the headlights. I used the bst/vac indicator I already had and it looks great. it even has this cool startup sequence where it runs the numbers up and down before going to zero. I will post some pictures in the comming days.

[Sutekiwa]

Congratulation to your great work .